@joshconstine@rrhoover
Heyo - ZBoard Co-Founder Ben here.
IMO this trend of "Rideables" is the result of a few things:
1) Car ownership going down. City living going up.
There is a ton of data on this. Bike ownership, car sharing, Uber - lots of products that help people get around a city without a car are seeing massive growth.
2) The rise of crowdfunding
Since we ran our first Kickstarter project back in 2012 there have been 10+ electric skateboards on Kickstarter not to mention a handful of awesome scooters, rocket skates, and more.
3) Ali Baba growing into a beast
Ali Baba makes it so much easier for hobbyists to take their one-off projects and look at volume pricing for certain parts like motors and motors.
4) Drones taking off
The massive growth of the DIY and off-the-shelf drone industries have driven the quality of Lithium batteries up and prices down. The Rideables industry greatly benefits from this.
I may be drinking the kool-aid but in general I think this industry is just scratching the surface. These products are going to be so good in five years - I can't wait to see them.

@joshconstine@rrhoover
The real products here are symptoms of electrical engineering innovation and the beauty of Moore's law.
What's crazy is that this growth took place while cargo ships decreased from 25 knots to 14 knots to save fuel within the past 5 years. I have no idea how Ali-baba is able to supply motors at such a quick rate. It's nuts.

Riding a ZBoard is plain awesome. The feedback you get from using your weight to go/stop is more intuitive and analogous to riding a regular skateboard. You don't get the same feedback from other "remote" controlled boards. The new ZBoard 2 is also a huge step up. It's considerably lighter, has a sleeker design and the weight sensing pads are larger and more sensitive.

i've rode both the ZB1 and had the opportunity to ride the new generation a couple weeks ago. HOLY CRAP it is honestly the best thing ever. I finally purchased one after riding the ZB2. honestly cannot wait for it to arrive.